"Mapping Relyah (2)" by Sarah M Jilek

2

Kay decided she would wait for me outside until after the…um…burning. I didn’t argue. I wasn’t sure why I joined the Silver Blade - a group of Tallieth residents that burned witches -. I think I had felt like I was doing Tallieth a favor by ridding it of witches. But during that burning, while I watched as the flame consumed the girl and her cries for help were lost, I thought long and hard about what the hell I was doing. Of course, that thought could go both ways. On one hand: what the hell was I doing helping burn people alive just because they were different than me? On the other hand: what the hell was I doing protecting the very kind of person that I’ve been taught to hate these many years?

After the burning, I went back outside. I saw Kay as soon as I stepped outside. Her face was pale and her clear ocean-blue eyes were staring off into the distance. Her hands were shaking. I cleared my throat and she looked up, startled. Her eyes filled with hate when she saw me and I tried not to recoil in her powerful stare.

“Are you done now?” she asked me. Her voice was thick with anger. “Are you done ‘honorably doing your city a favor’?” I didn’t answer. She scoffed at me and stood up. “You know, you were right. I shouldn’t have followed you. I shouldn’t be here at all,” she added and proceeded to walk into the middle of the street.

“Kay!” I shouted, and she looked away from me and up the street, where seven white horses were galloping toward us. She darted out of the way, toward the side of the street she had come from. The horses came to a stop farther down the road, near the center of the Marketplace, and we jogged to catch up to them.

“Who are they?” Kay asked me about the seven men atop the seven beautiful horses.

“They’re the Council. They rule Tallieth. Wonder what they’re doing here,” I muttered as we stopped in front of them along with the crowd of people that had gathered in the Marketplace.

“Citizens of Tallieth, by now you all know that witches are becoming more and more abundant all over Relyah. Even here in Tallieth we are in danger every day by these evil creatures,” the Head of the Council spoke, projecting his voice for all to hear. I shot a quick glance at Kay, who scoffed and slightly shook her head, disbelieving. I didn’t blame her. She had just come from a city that revered witches to one that hated them and burned them alive. Talk about your major wake-up-call.

“The Silver Blade is doing an admirable job cleansing the city of these foul creatures,” he continued, nodding at me as I suddenly realized that Kay and I were standing in the front of the crowd. I returned his nod respectfully. “However, they cannot protect us from the dangers outside our city. That is why I have need to call upon one of you citizens to travel beyond the boundaries of our city and map out the boundaries of the entire island of Relyah, so that we may know where the danger lies.” he stopped for a moment and glanced meaningfully at me before continuing. “And who better to accomplish this than our very own Arainn - long since a member of the Silver Blade?”

I swear the blood froze in my veins.

“Arainn, this is a duty to your kingdom that is of the utmost importance. If you should return without having seen and recorded the entire island of Relyah, it shall be the last thing you shall ever do. You may start immediately,” the Head of the Council finished. He and the rest of the seven galloped back the way they had come. I stood, frozen by his words, unable to move my feet or speak.

“Rain?” I heard Kay’s voice call. I shook myself and turned to look at her, not quite sure how to ask the question that had formed in the back of my mind. “Fine, I’ll go with you,” she said, reading my mind. I nodded, still not fully grasping the meaning of what I had been sent to do.

“I have to say goodbye to my family,” I said, and Kay nodded. I lead the way back to my house where I lived with my younger sister Racheth.

I opened the door of the house to see that my parents were inside as well as my sister. Word sure travels fast in this town. My mother flung herself at me the moment I stepped inside the house. I hugged her as she sobbed into my shoulder.

“Arainn…Arainn…do you have to go? Throughout the whole island? No one from Tallieth has ever been that far before and survived. No one knows what’s out there,” she said through her tears.

“I’ll be fine, mother. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine,” I kept repeating, hoping that she would stop crying. She eventually pulled herself together and shrugged my arms off, hiding her face so she could wipe it with a handkerchief. My father stepped in front of me, putting his hands on my shoulders. I was only a little bit shorter than him.

“Son, I know you’ll make Tallieth - and us- proud. Stay safe, okay?” he said. I nodded, and he pulled me into a quick hug before clearing his throat and backing away. He’s never been one for showing emotions.

Racheth stepped forward. She wrapped her arms around me gently and whispered in my ear,

“If you die out there mom and dad will be hell, okay? So don’t, because I won’t be able to deal with them, Rain. Make me proud, okay?” she said, pulling away from me. I smiled and nodded.

“I’ll just pack a few things, I guess,” I said, and I motioned for Kay to follow me up the stairs.

I shut the door after we were both in my room and immediately set to work packing things. Kay sat down on the edge of my bed. I swear I heard her sniffle a little and I turned around.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her suspiciously. She kept her face hidden.

“What? Nothing, I’m fine,” she said, and I could tell she was wiping her eyes.

“Or don’t tell me,” I said, focusing on packing. I packed stacks of parchment and quills - for making maps, of course- and extra clothes. I tossed a few of Racheth’s outfits to Kay. “Here, she never wears these. You should try them on in the other room.”

“No, I don’t need to, they’re fine, thanks,” she mumbled, still shielding her face with her long brown hair.

“You sure you’re fine?” I asked one more time.

“Yeah, just leave me alone, okay?”

“One of these days, you’re going to talk to me,” I said.

“One of these days, you’re going to leave me alone,” she replied coldly. I rolled my eyes and finished packing and closed my leather bag. I said a silent goodbye to my room and walked out the door. Kay shut it behind me and followed me down the stairs. I noticed she was walking really slowly, carefully. Racheth made me pack food from the kitchen and my mom hugged me again and started crying again. After that I said another silent goodbye to my house and closed the door behind me, although I was sure that part of me stayed behind in that house and would remain there forever.

~

I have to say that walking out of the city gates of Tallieth and knowing I might not return was one of the strangest feelings I’ve ever had. We walked out of the west gate and began our journey.

“Drassea first, along the coast?” Kay asked me. I nodded.

“Sure, yeah, that’s fine,” I replied, sighing. It was going to be a long way.

The landscape between Tallieth and Drassea was little more than harsh desert, so I made sure I had enough water before we went. There was one river between the two cities- the Pyketh River, but it was much closer to Drassea than Tallieth, so, like I said, we had a long way to go before we’d have fresh water. It was approaching noon, and soon the heat would be overwhelming. There was barely any shade in the huge desert-like region on the south coast of Relyah. If we stayed close to the ocean, the temperature would be more comfortable, but we would also have to go out of our way to make it back inland to Drassea once we got closer. We decided to just stay inland and travel in a straight line the entire way.

“I think that’s a tree, way out there in the distance,” Kay observed, pointing at a black speck on the horizon while shielding her eyes from the sun with the back of her hand. I didn’t answer. I knew the desert could mess with your vision and I didn’t want to get my hopes up. “I should probably try on those clothes you gave me. I knew I should have-” Kay began, but I interrupted her.

“So, you suddenly feel like talking to me now?” I asked, keeping my eyes focused on the black speck.

“You know, I don’t have to come with you. This is your responsibility, after all. I should just leave now,” she said and turned around.

“But you won’t,” I said. I could tell she’d stopped walking, but I didn’t turn around.

“Don’t tell me what I will and won’t do. You don’t know me!” she shouted.

“You won’t leave because you have nowhere to go. That’s why you were in Demon’s Forest. That’s why you followed me to the burning. That’s why you’re here now. And that’s why you won’t leave. You have nowhere to go. So you can treat me like I’m stupid all you want, but I’m not,” I said, finally turning around. Her face was pale, but she quickly recovered.

“Whatever,” Kay said. She had her hands on her hips and her blue eyes were narrowed. I slowly walked over to her.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” I asked her. She shook her head and her long brown hair fell over her shoulder. “I just want to know what you’re doing here. Why you were in Demon’s Forest in the first place. I think I have a right to know, seeing as how I rescued you,” I continued.

“Mind your own business, Rain,” she said, pushing past me and starting to walk towards the black speck in the distance.

“Issues. The girl has major issues,” I muttered to myself, following a little bit behind her.

~

It turned out that the black speck in the distance was a tree, after all. It was just one lonely, struggling half-dead tree in the middle of the desert. We made it to the tree near sunset, which was bad timing if you ask me. A tree would have been a lot more helpful if we came across one at noon, when the sun was at its height in the sky and was more blistering.

As soon as we stepped into the small patch of shade underneath the tree, we both collapsed onto the sandy ground. We had been walking nonstop since we left Tallieth. Walking in a desert with little water. Neither one of us had spoken a word to the other since noon. Before I realized what she was doing, Akkailia walked around to the other side of the tree and opened the bag she had been carrying. She pulled out all the clothes I had given her earlier. I turned back around, remembering that she had said that she was going to try them on. A few minutes later she walked back around the tree wearing a dark red leather shirt and black traveling pants under the chain mail I had given her to wear when she first came to Tallieth.

“It fits,” she said.

~